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Working together to achieve a goal works best when there are no secrets, and now, a major technological tenet of this has manifested. This week, Toyota made serious strides into a future that could help benefit humanity's greater good. The automobile company released the the patents to its new fuel cells for all to learn from, hopefully as a means of escalating sustainable technology in the overall auto industry.

A 2016 Toyota vehicle with a hydrogen fuel cell that you can learn all about.
(Image courtesy computerworld.com.)

According to mashable.com, during a presentation on Toyota's new vehicle, the Mirai (which is Japanese for "future"), senior vice president of automotive operations Bob Carter announced the release, stating, "By eliminating traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the development of new technologies, and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically."

Some 5,680 patents were released for royalty-free use, all concerning the nature of hydrogen fuel cells. Reminiscent of an earlier move by the Tesla electric car company (who also made public their patents), the move could generate interest, innovation, transparency and collaboration to herald in a new way of working alongside the slated upcoming boom of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Even famed physicist Michio Kaku agrees: sharing smarts can bring about even more great ideas.
(image courtesy blogs.denverpost.com.)

Carter admitted that the next five years will be a critical testing ground across the board for the new style of vehicles, no matter who makes them, requiring "a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration between automakers, government regulators, academia and energy providers." Maybe this meeting of minds will make multifaceted technological projects more likely to be achieved via teamwork in the future, perhaps even bringing the drive to integrally innovate to even more fields.